Antibacterial agents are commonly incorporated into oral care compositions to destroy or retard the growth of bacteria that may cause dental plaque, caries or dental decay, or bad breath.
Many antibacterial agents are cationic in order to interact with the negatively-charged microbial cell membranes. However, many oral care compositions also include anionic surfactants, such as sodium lauryl sulfate. Anionic surfactants are believed to deactivate cationic antibacterial molecules. Thus, it has been a challenge to formulate oral care compositions that contain both a cationic antibacterial agent and an anionic surfactant.
Accordingly, it would be commercially desirable to have oral care compositions wherein highly efficacious cationic antibacterial agents can be formulated with anionic surfactant systems without a meaningful loss in antibacterial efficacy. Implementations of the present invention are designed to meet this, and other, needs.